The Secrets of Comprehensive Payment Solutions: Helping You Save Costs

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Regulators and payment giants are paving the way. Are enterprises ready to seize this wave of cost-reduction and efficiency-boosting dividends?

2025 is a transformative year for multinational enterprise payment strategies. Policy, technology, and market ecosystems are undergoing triple resonance. Global cross-border payment transaction volumes are expected to continue growing. This presents unprecedented cost-optimization opportunities for enterprises. By building modern comprehensive payment solutions, enterprises can proactively embrace change. This move can transform the payment department from a cost center into a value creation center.

Key Takeaways

• Enterprises should identify and quantify hidden payment costs, such as transaction fees, exchange losses, and operational costs.
• Enterprises should select appropriate payment service providers, integrate global local payment methods, and leverage policy benefits to reduce costs.
• Enterprises should use API integration to achieve payment automation and utilize AI, blockchain, and other technologies to improve efficiency.
• E-commerce enterprises can save costs by optimizing collection strategies, while SaaS companies can reduce management overhead through subscription automation.
• Enterprises should assess the readiness of their payment strategies and actively embrace new technologies and policy changes.

Uncover Hidden Costs: The First Step in Payment Optimization

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The first step in optimizing payment strategies is to identify and quantify those profit-eroding hidden costs. Many enterprises fail to realize that inefficient payment processes consume 5% to 7% of their international business revenue. These costs lurk in transaction fees, exchange rate spreads, and daily operations. Enterprises must face these costs head-on to transform the payment department into a value center.

Transaction Fees: Negotiation and Channel Optimization

Transaction fees are the most visible part of payment costs, but their complexity goes far beyond the surface. Fees vary significantly across payment channels. Traditional SWIFT wire transfers can cost between $45 and $140 per transaction, including fees from the remitting bank, receiving bank, and multiple intermediary banks. In contrast, modern payment solutions offer better options.

Payment Channel Cost Comparison

Payment Method	Average Fee
Credit Card	1.40% of transaction amount
SWIFT Wire Transfer	Approximately $25-$40 per transfer (remitting bank fee only)
Digital Wallet	Lower fees, more competitive exchange rates

Digital wallets and other online platforms, due to their lightweight operational models, typically provide lower fees and better exchange rates. By optimizing the payment channel mix, enterprises can significantly reduce hard costs per transaction.

Exchange Losses: Locking and Risk Avoidance

Exchange losses are another major hidden cost. Traditional banks typically add a 1% to 5% markup to the mid-market exchange rate when providing quotes. This opaque pricing method causes enterprises to unknowingly pay high conversion fees.

To avoid exchange rate fluctuation risks, enterprises can adopt proactive risk management strategies.

Core Strategy: Forward Contract

It allows enterprises to buy or sell foreign currency at a pre-locked exchange rate on a future date. This effectively hedges against exchange rate fluctuation risks, ensuring cost and profit certainty.

By partnering with fintech service providers offering rates close to the mid-market and using tools like forward contracts, enterprises can effectively reduce exchange losses.

Operational Costs: Automation and Efficiency Improvement

Manual payment processing is the most costly yet most overlooked aspect. Finance teams spend significant time on reconciliation, handling payment failures (costing $20-$50 per instance), and resolving discrepancies, all contributing to high operational costs.

Automation is key to solving this issue. Financial reconciliation software can complete in seconds what takes humans hours or even days. Implementing automated financial software that auto-matches and posts can achieve a 30% acceleration in reconciliation cycles. This not only reduces human errors but also frees the finance team from tedious repetitive tasks, allowing focus on more strategically valuable work.

Build an Efficient Comprehensive Payment Solution

After identifying hidden costs, the next step is to take proactive action and build a modern comprehensive payment solution that maximizes efficiency and minimizes expenses. This is not simply about switching providers but a systematic restructuring around the enterprise’s globalization strategy across four dimensions: service provider selection, payment method integration, policy utilization, and technology integration.

Select the Right Service Provider

Choosing the right payment service provider is the cornerstone of cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Traditional banking services are often cumbersome and expensive for global payments. In contrast, modern fintech service providers offer superior solutions through integrated platforms.

Leading fintech providers, such as Airwallex or Stripe, offer a complete toolkit to simplify global financial operations. When selecting, enterprises should focus on evaluating the following aspects:

• Global Coverage and Local Settlement: Does the provider support local payment methods in the enterprise’s target markets? For example, Airwallex supports payments in over 180 countries and regions. It also provides multi-currency global collection accounts, allowing enterprises to receive payments in local currencies directly into accounts, avoiding unnecessary forced conversions and high exchange fees.
• Pricing Model Transparency: Is the fee structure clear? Some providers use the “Interchange++” model, such as Adyen charging 0.13 USD plus Interchange plus 0.60% for Visa/Mastercard transactions. Others use a percentage plus fixed fee model. Enterprises should choose the most cost-effective option based on their transaction characteristics.
• Integrated Financial Functions: Beyond payment processing, does the provider offer value-added services like financial automation, virtual cards, and expense management? These functions consolidate financial management into a single platform, greatly improving operational efficiency.

For smaller organizations or those primarily operating in cross-border e-commerce and remote teams, it is not always necessary to deploy a full-scale treasury stack from day one. An all-in-one wallet-style solution can consolidate collection, payout, and balance management into a single environment and reduce the operational load on finance.

BiyaPay, for example, combines multi-currency accounts with a digital asset wallet to cover cross-border payments, investment, trading and day-to-day treasury use cases. Enterprises can hold multiple fiat currencies and digital assets in one place, use the online FX rate and cost comparison tool to estimate settlement outcomes, and then pay suppliers, cloud services or SaaS subscriptions via remittance or a virtual payment card, instead of moving funds back and forth across several banks and platforms.

Because BiyaPay operates under regulatory licenses such as a U.S. MSB registration and New Zealand FSP status, it provides cross-border fund flows and asset management within a defined compliance framework. For teams aiming to control payment costs without significantly expanding finance headcount, this type of solution can act as a pragmatic complement between traditional banks and large global payment gateways.

A survey of enterprises adopting global treasury solutions showed significant cost savings. Specific results include:

• Foreign exchange conversion and transaction fees reduced by up to $6.6 million.
• Avoidance of $4.7 million in costs from building and maintaining in-house payment integration teams.
• Productivity value from operational efficiency improvements approximately $60,800.

By partnering with comprehensive service providers, enterprises not only reduce direct transaction costs but also free resources from tedious financial maintenance to focus on core business growth.

Integrate Global Localized Payments

When entering new markets, offering payment methods aligned with local consumer habits is crucial. Research shows that if the preferred payment method is unavailable, up to 13% of online shoppers will abandon their carts. This means lacking localized payment options directly leads to revenue loss.

Payment preferences vary widely across markets:

• Latin America: Credit card penetration is generally low in the region. For example, in Brazil, the largest e-commerce market, only about 32% of people own credit cards. Therefore, supporting local debit cards, savings account transfers, and other alternative payment methods is key to success.
• Southeast Asia: E-wallets dominate. In countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand, e-wallet usage is very high. Meanwhile, bank app transfers (such as Malaysia’s Maybank2u) are also widely popular.

An excellent comprehensive payment solution enables enterprises to easily access over 160 global local payment methods through a single integration. This not only significantly boosts customer conversion rates but also reduces transaction fees through local clearing networks, accelerates fund crediting, and optimizes cash flow.

Leverage 2025 Policy Benefits

Keeping pace with policy changes is another important way for enterprises to optimize costs. Especially for multinationals with operations in mainland China, new 2025 policies from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) bring unprecedented opportunities.

These policies aim to simplify cross-border fund management and reduce compliance costs and operational burdens for enterprises. Key benefits include:

• Simplified Foreign Investment Processes: Elimination of multiple SAFE registration requirements, such as allowing foreign investors to directly remit funds into accounts opened at mainland Chinese banks without prior registration.
• Expanded Cross-Border Financing Channels: Eligible high-tech enterprises can access foreign debt quotas of up to $10.0M USD or even $20.0M USD, providing funding support for development.
• Domestic and Foreign Currency Integrated Fund Pool Pilot: This pilot allows multinationals greater freedom to mobilize domestic and foreign funds for centralized global fund management.

By utilizing the integrated domestic and foreign currency fund pool, enterprises can:

1. Reduce Financing Costs: Decrease reliance on expensive external credit through internal fund sharing.
2. Cut Management Fees: Centralize global accounts receivable/payable processing to simplify financial workflows.
3. Mitigate Exchange Rate Risks: Stabilize costs through multi-currency accounts and hedging strategies.

According to reports, enterprises adopting global cash pooling strategies see net interest expenses drop by an average of 15% to 25%. Proactively leveraging these policy benefits is an indispensable part of building an efficient comprehensive payment solution.

API Integration for Seamless Experience

The core of modern payment systems is the API (Application Programming Interface). Through robust API integration, enterprises can seamlessly embed payment functions into their ERP, e-commerce platforms, or business systems, achieving ultimate automation and efficiency.

The benefits of API integration are multifaceted:

For example, an e-commerce site connects its Shopify store to a payment provider via API. When a customer places an order, the payment gateway securely processes the payment. Once approved, the API not only sends a receipt to the customer but also immediately calls another API to update inventory and invoice records in accounting systems like NetSuite. The entire process is fully automated, creating a frictionless experience for both customers and the enterprise.

Embrace Cutting-Edge Technology: Drive Future Cost Savings

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An efficient payment solution cannot do without cutting-edge technology support. Artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and embedded finance are reshaping the payment landscape, opening new cost-saving paths for enterprises. By proactively embracing these technologies, enterprises can elevate payment efficiency to new heights.

AI-Driven Intelligent Payment Decisions

AI technology is becoming a powerful tool for enterprises to reduce payment costs. It significantly optimizes transaction processing through intelligent routing and fraud prediction.

• Intelligent Routing: AI systems can analyze in real-time and select the lowest-cost payment path. It routes transactions to the acquirer with the lowest fees, thereby maximizing enterprise profit margins. This approach avoids additional fees from multiple payment attempts.
• Fraud Prediction: Traditional systems rely on fixed rules, often mistakenly blocking legitimate transactions. AI can more accurately identify complex fraud patterns, and its application has helped enterprises reduce annual fraud losses by 20% to 30%.

Blockchain and Digital Currency Applications

Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), is enhancing the speed and transparency of cross-border payments through decentralized settlement. Traditional wire transfers take three to five days, while blockchain settlement can be completed in minutes. This eliminates intermediary links and directly reduces transaction costs.

Digital currencies, especially stablecoins, are catalysts for this trend. The stablecoin market is expected to grow from $140 billion to $2.8 trillion by 2028. Over 70% of financial institutions view cross-border payments as the primary application scenario for stablecoins, indicating broad prospects in B2B payments.

Seamless Integration of Embedded Finance

Embedded finance seamlessly integrates payment services into enterprises’ existing ERP or business processes. This integration achieves ultimate automation, freeing finance teams from tedious manual reconciliation and data entry.

“Payments used to be about how to optimize costs. But now, the focus can be on how we create differentiated experiences or revenue sources, or operate more effectively and improve productivity?” — U.S. Bank Senior Vice President of Global Accounts Payable and Embedded Payments, Anu Somani

By directly embedding payment functions into workflows, enterprises can simplify financial operations, reduce errors and risks. This not only lowers management overhead but also allows teams to focus on more valuable strategic work.

Practical Cases: Enterprise Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement Records

Theory combined with practice yields maximum value. Many enterprises have already transformed cost centers into profit engines by optimizing payment solutions. The following two cases demonstrate how e-commerce and SaaS industries achieve cost reduction and efficiency through specific strategies.

E-Commerce Enterprise: Optimize Collections to Save 20% Costs

A global market-oriented e-commerce enterprise once faced high transaction fees and order losses due to payment issues. By implementing a comprehensive collection optimization strategy, the company successfully reduced payment-related costs by 20%.

Its core initiatives include:

• Deploy Intelligent Payment Routing: The enterprise adopted a payment orchestration platform, where the system automatically routes payment requests to the lowest-cost acquirer based on card type, amount, and real-time rates.
• Integrate Local Payment Methods: For different markets, the company added locally preferred payment options, such as offering iDEAL in the Netherlands. This not only boosted conversion rates but also reduced transaction fees by using local clearing networks.
• Achieve Local Currency Settlement: Throughout the shopping process, the enterprise displayed prices in local currencies to customers. This eliminated exchange rate confusion and significantly reduced chargeback risks due to price opacity.

This combination of strategies not only directly cut hard costs but also indirectly increased sales by improving customer experience.

SaaS Company: Automate Subscriptions to Reduce Management Overhead

A rapidly growing SaaS company found its finance team spending significant time each month manually handling recurring subscriptions, issuing invoices, and performing financial reconciliation. This process was inefficient and error-prone.

The company introduced an automated subscription billing platform, automating the entire collection process. The system automatically handled subscription renewals, sent payment reminders, and integrated with accounting software for real-time data synchronization. This change brought significant results.

The finance team thus shortened the month-end closing process by a full three days. They were no longer bogged down by tedious spreadsheets and manual matching transactions, instead focusing energy on more valuable strategic work, such as analyzing cash flow and supporting business growth.

Through automation, the company not only reduced management overhead but also laid a solid foundation for rapid business expansion, avoiding growth bottlenecks caused by manual processes.

The 2025 payment environment is full of opportunities. A successful comprehensive payment solution is no longer a pile of tools but a deep understanding and strategic application of technology, policy, and market trends. Enterprises should act immediately to assess their payment strategy readiness.

2025 Payment Strategy Readiness Self-Checklist

• Has your payment system been API-enabled to achieve automation?
• Are you utilizing any foreign exchange facilitation policies to reduce costs?
• Does your budget accurately reflect true payment costs?

To gain in-depth understanding and build a future-oriented comprehensive payment solution, enterprises can download the detailed “2025 Multinational Payment Trends and Strategies Whitepaper” or schedule a free payment process evaluation consultation.

FAQ

Our company is small; do we need a complex payment solution?

Enterprises of any size face payment cost issues. A suitable solution can help small enterprises establish an efficient financial foundation early on to support future development.

Core Tip: The focus is not complexity but suitability. Choose scalable services that grow with the enterprise to avoid costly system replacements in the future.

How to determine which payment service provider is best for us?

Enterprises should evaluate the provider’s global coverage capabilities, pricing transparency, and whether it offers integrated functions like financial automation. Matching these with the enterprise’s business model and target markets will find the most suitable partner.

API integration sounds complex; do we need a strong technical team?

No. Modern payment service providers offer detailed development documentation and technical support. Many integrations can be completed via low-code or no-code plugins, allowing enterprises to achieve automated payment processes without a large technical team.

Besides forward contracts, are there other ways to reduce exchange costs?

Yes. Enterprises can open multi-currency global collection accounts to receive payments in local currencies, avoiding unnecessary conversions. Choosing fintech service providers with lower exchange rate markups can also directly reduce exchange costs per transaction.